Interestingly, this is a matter of debate right now: see "Forget lung, breast or prostate cancer: why tumour naming needs to change: The conventional way of classifying metastatic cancers according to their organ of origin is denying people access to drugs that could help them" https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00216-3
A number of companies have sprung up that'll try to a tumor sample to a variety of treatments in order to figure out whether treatments from other tumor sites may work better.
My own tumors originated in my tongue; now I don't have a tongue any more (https://jakeseliger.com/2023/09/09/life-swallowing-tasting-a...) and the tumors reside in my neck and lungs. A lot of oncologists who specialize in head and neck cancers also work in lung, since there seems to be a lot of overlap between the two.
I don't know this for sure, but I think DNA profiling is changing how oncologists, and people more generally, view cancers, or at least many cancers. Decades ago, it wasn't feasible to take molecular snapshots of cancers. Now it's still not quite standard, though it should be, via companies like CARIS: https://www.carislifesciences.com/
I just wanted to say that I sympathize with many of the things you describe in your linked post. I didn't have it anywhere near as rough as you, but: I had a motorcycle accident: I've felt the strange cold of a nasal feeding tube filling with the neon blue fluid food; I lost something like 35 pounds spending a month in the ICU; I've experienced both an NG tube going in and coming out, and how weird that feels -- same for removing a chest tube: it doesn't really hurt, it just feels wrong; I've had a catheter, so I know all about how wrong that feels; and of course I know about the constipation as well.
I've felt hopeless as they dialed back the ventilator prepping to take me off it, and I've been so weak I got stuck in the bathtub.
I read your linked article, and I’m so sorry for what you went through and what you continue to live with. Two members of my immediate family were diagnosed with cancer within a month of each other. One didn’t make it as a result of just how punishing the adjuvant treatments were. She succumbed to an infection and couldn’t fight it off.
Being in the treatment rooms for both people made surgery, chemo, and radiation all feel like blunt instruments that crushed the patients. Even 3 months post treatment, my surviving family member suffers from the effects of the treatments, and likely will for up to a year we’ve been told.
I hope you get some relief and hope for your situation. Your writing is exceptional.
Cancer is cell-specific. Organs are made of different types of cells specific to that organ. Lung cancer is not the same as pancreatic cancer is not the same as breast cancer, etc. If cancer was not cell-specific, it would be much easier to synthesize treatments for.
>Organs are made of different types of cells specific to that organ.
I think I broadly agree but with the important caveat that organs frequently share cell types and therefore can share cancers specific to those cells, across organs.
They’re not organ specific, they’re disease specific. Despite all being called cancer, they’re not really the same disease and each variant might express different targets or react differently to the same treatment.
Cancer isn't one disease, any cell could potentially become cancerous and they can potentially become cancerous in different ways. A universal cancer vaccine will probably never happen, but hopefully we'll be able to have enough coverage of the more common ones such that cancer is effectively eliminated.
The mutations and vaccine are usually specific to the type of cancer, so yes one treatment won’t help a different kind of cancer. Unfortunately, of course, but that’s the way it is.
jseliger|1 year ago
A number of companies have sprung up that'll try to a tumor sample to a variety of treatments in order to figure out whether treatments from other tumor sites may work better.
My own tumors originated in my tongue; now I don't have a tongue any more (https://jakeseliger.com/2023/09/09/life-swallowing-tasting-a...) and the tumors reside in my neck and lungs. A lot of oncologists who specialize in head and neck cancers also work in lung, since there seems to be a lot of overlap between the two.
I don't know this for sure, but I think DNA profiling is changing how oncologists, and people more generally, view cancers, or at least many cancers. Decades ago, it wasn't feasible to take molecular snapshots of cancers. Now it's still not quite standard, though it should be, via companies like CARIS: https://www.carislifesciences.com/
gcanyon|1 year ago
I've felt hopeless as they dialed back the ventilator prepping to take me off it, and I've been so weak I got stuck in the bathtub.
So: best of luck, and best of doctors to you.
iroddis|1 year ago
Being in the treatment rooms for both people made surgery, chemo, and radiation all feel like blunt instruments that crushed the patients. Even 3 months post treatment, my surviving family member suffers from the effects of the treatments, and likely will for up to a year we’ve been told.
I hope you get some relief and hope for your situation. Your writing is exceptional.
halfmatthalfcat|1 year ago
glenstein|1 year ago
I think I broadly agree but with the important caveat that organs frequently share cell types and therefore can share cancers specific to those cells, across organs.
cfu28|1 year ago
mbStavola|1 year ago
derf_|1 year ago
JPLeRouzic|1 year ago
After all, cells in each organ have often specific shape, receptors, behavior, means to communicate with other cells, etc...
andyferris|1 year ago